Aside from our own planet, which does still have its unexplored nooks and crannies, Mars stands as the planet we know the most about, thanks to a mountain of exploration missions. We first started trying to reach Mars (we meaning “humans” in this case, not just the United States) with the launch of a probe in October of 1960 that never achieved Earth orbit. It’s a good thing we’re not a species to give up easily; there were many expensive failures along the path to Mars.

Within 10 years of that first failure, we had three spacecraft achieve successful flybys of Mars; Mariner 4, 6 and 7. We had close up images of Mars, were able to confirm the atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide, and took a number of other measurements of the red planet. Mariner 9 was the final mission in that series, and was the first time orbit around a planet other than Earth was established.

The ’70s were another Mars boom, as we attempted to put a lander on the surface. It didn’t exactly go smoothly. The Russian Mars 2 lander crashed into the planet when its rockets, meant to slow it down before hitting the surface, failed completely. The Mars 3 lander made it down, but transmitted for a grand total of 20 seconds before contact was lost. Mars 6 appeared to be working on the way down, but failed before reaching the surface. Mars 7 missed the planet entirely, and so ended that series of spacecraft (Mars 4 and 5 were orbiters, not meant to land on the planet).

Finally, lander success occurred with the NASA Viking 1 and 2 missions, launched in 1975. Both landers made it to the ground and sent back photos, temperature readings, and the results of their search for Martians (the microorganism kind, not the little green men kind), which were inconclusive.

A series of Russian failures, first attempting to reach one of Mars’ moons, Phobos, and then aiming for the red planet itself, left NASA as the only truly successful lander. The U.S. next launched the Mars Observer in 1992, which was lost just before it was to go into orbit, and the Mars Global Surveyor in 1996, which successfully mapped the planet’s surface and is still in orbit today.

The next lander, Mars Pathfinder, brought the first rover to Mars, a little six-wheeled machine called Sojourner, and we left our first tire treads on another planet as she explored the area around her landing site. Sojourner paved the way for a few other famous rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 2003, and then in 2011, Curiosity joined them as part of the Mars Science Laboratory, specifically to study if Mars had ever had life.

Spirit and Opportunity were geologist rovers, and both outlived their 90 day lifespan by significant margins. We lost signal from Spirit in 2010, but Opportunity is still functioning to this day, though it’s currently in hibernation due to a dust storm blowing over the surface of Mars. Curiosity is also still operational, and will be the template for the next Martian rover that will (hopefully) grace the surface of Mars in 2021.

That rover, as yet unnamed, will be armed with a drill for core samples that will be set aside in the hopes that they will one day be returned to Earth for study. It will also test out possibilities for creating oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, a key component for any future manned missions to Mars.

Other successful orbital missions included an Indian Mars orbiter, which is measuring radiation and mapping the planet, NASA’s MAVEN orbiter which hopes to learn more about Mars’ climate change, and the InSight mission, which is on its way to the red planet as you read this.

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express was also half successful, as the orbiter made it to Mars, though the lander experienced communication failure. The orbiter has had some great publicity this week with its discovery of what scientists believe is a liquid water lake under the southern polar ice cap, marking a great location for future life-seeking missions.

LOOKING UP THIS WEEK — At dusk, you’ll see Jupiter high in the southern sky and a very bright Venus in the west with a rising Saturn in the southeast. About two hours after Venus sets, a very bright Mars will be rising. The moon is currently a waning gibbous and will be third quarter on Saturday.